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Old 06-17-2020, 05:52 AM   #1
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Exploring Core Sound, NC depths?

This year Liz & I are going to explore some more of North Carolina's scenic waterways for our summer cruise. Our plan is to leave from our home dock on the Chesapeake and make our way south, via the Dismal Swamp Canal stopping in Belhaven, possibly Oriental and Beaufort, NC being the Southernmost point of this trip. Yes, I'm going to eat my hat after saying never again and we're going to give the Dismal Swamp route another go since last years voyage through endless seas of duckweed & downed trees in the upper Pasquotank River!
We would like to come back via Core sound. We like cruising new-to-us territories which is why we settled on a smaller, keel-protected boat like ours.
We're looking for opinions on the logistics of making the trip back through Core Sound with a relatively shallow draft boat as ours. Looking at the chart, the waters appear to get a little skinny and the channel vague in some areas between Beaufort & Pamlico Sound. We're not to worried about touching the bottom with our keel if it happens and I feel I'm confident in making wise decisions when cruising waters with which we're not familiar (when in doubt, slow down! ) but again ,what we're looking for is advice on if it's even worthwhile to entertain the idea of this route.
Your knowledgeable insight is appreciated!
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Old 06-17-2020, 07:11 AM   #2
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In short, no. Too shallow to make it all the way up and requires very good local knowledge to even get as far as Atlantic.

Plus it is not particularly scenic in any way. I have explored a good bit of it in our 13' Whaler.

See my most recent comments on the "Beaufort, Charleston, Georgetown.." thread for a much superior itinerary.
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Old 06-17-2020, 07:55 AM   #3
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do you have a fast dingy ?you can explore the core sound from turnagain bay via the old canal .i think you can get there from the south river too. i'm planning on doing this when i get a decent dingy.
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Old 06-17-2020, 08:30 AM   #4
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I did transit the whole of Core Sound in my 38 with 3' draft. I had no problems... BUT... it was during a calm stretch and the water vis was good enough to visually pick out shoal areas. Those conditions are rather rare for the area and I would not have attempted it otherwise. The charts are not updated nor markers seriously maintained, and the shoals move around. Definitely had to pick through the shoals visually or I would have grounded.
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Old 06-17-2020, 09:50 AM   #5
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vSome boaters like exploration beyond the norm.

I spent a lot of my boating hours going where others wouldn't dare.

Exciting when you get through the "impassible"....frustrating a lot of the time.

Level of comfort is yours and yours alone.

If you can corner a local and pick their brain...might help....might not but you may reevaluate for several reasons.
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Old 06-17-2020, 11:06 AM   #6
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Looks like some serious gunkholing. Single screw with a keel???
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Old 06-17-2020, 11:17 AM   #7
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As others have said, Core Sound is very shallow and not very pretty. But have you done the Albermarle loop:

Starting from Elizabeth City head west on the Albermarle to Edenton and hang out free for two days at the city dock. Edenton has a historic courthouse a few blocks from the city dock that is worth a tour. Then if you are adventuresome try the two small towns of Plymouth and Columbia on the south shore of the Albermarle and tie up at their free docks. Then east to Manteo and tie up at the town's free dock. The town has a small newly developed downtown which is nice. From there head down to Ocracoke where you can tie up at the NPS dock for about $20/night, half if you have the senior pass. Ocracoke has several waterfront bars and restaurants as well as a world famous coffee shop near the waterfront. Then down to Oriental and tie up at one of the free town docks. Stop at the Bean for coffee in the morning and catch up on town gossip. On your way home anchor out at the north end of the Alligator Pungo canal before heading north to Elizabeth City and home.

You can stretch it out for two weeks with side trips to Washington, NC, New Bern and Beaufort. You will have to pay for a marina at the latter two but little Washington has free dockage downtown.

The whole trip could cost you less than $50 for dockage and you will only have to drop the hook once.

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Old 06-17-2020, 12:14 PM   #8
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Take a look at Charts or on Active Captain:

https://activecaptain.garmin.com/en-US/Map

By Styron Bay just inside of Ophelia Inlet, between G"23" and R"28". The channel is not marked, it winds and is only 2-3 feet at MLW. That entire area is known for shifting sandbars. Even if the GPS chart overlay or paper chart shows a deeper channel, it might not actually be there any longer.
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Old 06-17-2020, 12:54 PM   #9
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Circumnavigated that area in 2010 as part of the Watertribe "North Carolina Challenge" in a Sea Pearl with a 6" draft (boards up). Rowed in the shallow stuff, sailed in the deeper areas.

Went aground TWICE rowing in Core Sound.
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Old 06-17-2020, 02:43 PM   #10
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Quote:
Originally Posted by timb View Post
do you have a fast dingy ?you can explore the core sound from turnagain bay via the old canal .i think you can get there from the south river too. i'm planning on doing this when i get a decent dingy.
Can't do it from South River. You have to be careful in the canal as there are a fair number of snags now, it hasn't been maintained in who knows how long. But kind of fun, I just wouldn't (and didn't) go very fast. South River is very fun to explore by dinghy, and deep almost all the way down.

Edit: I should have noted, but now that my memory has been jogged, that if you make it through the old canal can sweep around through Long Bay and take Thorofare Canal to Core Sound. Same cautions there though at least 4 or 5 years ago not as bad snag wise... we've had a few more hurricanes since then.
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Old 06-17-2020, 03:05 PM   #11
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Thank you! Thank you all very much to take the time to reply! Wow, maybe we will reevaluate our float plan. In our minds, we imagined Core Sound to be somewhat scenic with the typical NC white sand beaches, the water more clear than farther up the sound and with not a lot a lot of boat traffic. I don't mind studying the bottom and slowing down when the channel shallows up but didn't want to be stressing about a lack of channel for the whole trip!
Ideally we would prefer to continually see new sights as we progress with our trip and not retrace our route back which is why we floated the idea of threading our way through Core Sound but it seems like the benefits are few. Our little 8' dinghy is just used as a tender and is not particularly fast or comfortable and used only for short trips and not exploring.
Like I mentioned, we bought the size and type of boat we have because of it's protected running gear and shallow draft. While I do tend to think of it as a Lego cruiser... where if something gets broken or bent,put it back together again and keep having fun...we did work our butts off making it a relatively seaworthy & reliable boat and don't want to intentionally set sail for doom!
We've pretty much settled on Beaufort as the this summers Southernmost destination so maybe after we've toured the old town we'll stick our nose in the Sound and won't be too embarrassed if we have to retreat and return the way we came.
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Old 06-17-2020, 03:18 PM   #12
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You won't find much in the way of clear water or white sand beaches at all. You go to Cape Lookout for that in abundance. The deep parts of Core Sound, other than channels into a few very small towns, are too far from shore to give you much sightseeing of the already featureless shoreline.

Go ahead and give it a try if you want, despite the input of those who have been there and done that. Check the LNMs and charts, and definitely discuss with your towing company for latest local knowledge. As I mentioned in my edited last post we have a couple of major hurricane events in the last few years.
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